THE SACRED BLACKSMITH - - DVD Review

Wolpaw’s Law has been such a wonderfully useful rule. I’ve invoked it
on the few occasions when I’ve reached
that dispiriting point where it’s unmistakably clear that an anime’s never actually going to “get good.” However, I’m starting to think that another Law
of Online Review needs to be instituted - - one for those times when a
reviewer (such as myself) must comment on a series that's aiming so squarely away
from his demographic that any commentary inevitably translates into him
basically throwing up his hands and saying, “This just isn’t for me.”

It’s not that THE SACRED BLACKSMITH is necessarily awful; it’s just
that watching it felt like a chore akin to babysitting one of my nieces and
having to watch whatever TV show she felt like watching. Not even one of her favorite
shows, mind you - - just one she was mildly interested in watching to pass the
time.

Maybe that’s a little condescending to the material; but please try to
sympathize with me, here. This is a show about a warrior maid (not the Joan of
Arc variety of maid, either. The maid café type) wearing a skimpy short
skirt, a totally useless bonnet and quite possibly the first armored breast
plate… and it isn’t actually intended to be some tongue-in-cheek farce.

Perhaps I’m just missing the joke. I thought I was in on it with the
first episode, at least. Then SACRED
BLACKSMITH rather quickly asserted itself as a serious fantasy series whose heroine
asks the big questions about morality, justice and religion… all while managing
to flash her panties at least once per episode. At the least, this show might be a handy topic
point for the next discussion of sexism, T&A and what have you in Eastern
and Western pop culture. Half of the
dialog - - not just the catty banter, mind you - - seems to revolve around
the subject of this warrior maid’s enormous breasts.

But it's OK, because it's meant to make tickle you, not titillate you, right? Right?

Anyway, the girl’s name is Cecily and she’s part of some
lineage of peacekeepers in another broadly-sketched fantasy land. She plainly sucks at what she’s trying to do,
and she has a pesky aversion to killing which isn’t helping her ambitions much.
Soon enough, she crosses passes with this fightin’ blacksmith, Luke, and he reluctantly mentors her in the
ways of sword-fighting and demon-slaying. In return, she coaches him on how to better
treat his elfin sidekick - - and surrogate sister/platonic girlfriend - -
by taking her shopping and making sure to compliment her outfits. Yes, he does.

If these two designed some seminar together after these adventures ran full circle, I'm sure it'd be called Swordsmanship and Sensitivity.

By this point, I was rolling my eyes enough times that I was only catching
bits and pieces of the daring-do these kids were participating in on screen. Two
stand-out sequences from these first six episodes were battles with monstrously-translucent demons who seemed like they'd been imagined by by the LEGEND OF ZELDA’s
character designers.

The second skirmish involved Cecily finally embracing her killer
instinct in order to take out a lava creature. Seeing as how her pal Luke sets up
that righteous kill by explaining how his katana can inflict just three
offensive strokes on the demon before breaking apart - - and whittle the baddie’s
health down to a very precise percentage in the process - - I couldn’t
help but wonder if there was some invisible XP counter ticking on screen.

I
also had to wonder if this was another sword & sorcery fantasy conceived by
people whose experience with the genre only goes back as far to RPG’s on the
SNES.

Indeed, once this adventuring band starts discussing weapons with potentially blasphemous abilities and wrestling with questions about the justification of lethal force, it's a bit like watching some middle-schoolers grasp at heavy essay topics that are few years beyond their comprehension. Come to think of it, that may actually be the audience this was intended for (despite its apparently mature TV-MA rating)

As that probably is the case here, the best I can do is just pat SACRED BLACKSMITH on the head, avert my eyes from its inappropriately-displayed hooters, throw my hands up and say, "Well, this really just isn't for me."

And it probably isn't for you, either, to be objective about it.

Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number
of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - -tompinchuk.com- - and follow his Twitter:@tompinchuk

Yeah. I tried watching this show, but the "Katanas Are Better Than Broadswords" thing in the first episode bugged me to such a degree that I had to throw up my hands and stop watching. Maybe if I didn't have a parent who was an actual blacksmith I wouldn't have had a problem with this but, because I do, I couldn't even look past the Katana fetishism and enjoy the obviously RPG inspired aspects of the setting.

I have this in my Instant Queue. I got to about episode 5 or 6 and stopped. I plan to finish the series but I struggle with it because it doesn't keep me interested enough. The series tries to combine comedy and a serious story but falls short on both counts.

I think my faltering with this show caused me to watch Needless instead. And I enjoyed that series, despite how deplorable you find it, Tom.

Yeah it does have its jrpg roots. But its animation is good its take on how magic works in their world i thought was neat.Tho this "avert my eyes from its inappropriately-displayed hooters"....um is their such a thing?

Yes the series does boob jokes but its not ecchi .Its listed as adventure,drama,fantasy harem an swordsman on most sites...Its not lord of the rings .But it is watchable an enjoyable enuff.One of those if your in the mood for this kind of show you could do way worse.

Yeah the head band thing makes her look like a maid .Not sure if its a joke or one of the designers thought the statue of liberty head band was so cool.